Andrew Hunter (lawyer)
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Andrew H. Hunter (March 22, 1804 – November 21, 1888) was a Virginia lawyer, slaveholder and politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He was the Commonwealth's attorney for
Jefferson County, Virginia Jefferson County, Virginia has existed twice in the U.S. state of Virginia's history. Formed in 1780, and 1801, respectively, both County (United States), counties were named for one of that state's most celebrated residents, Thomas Jefferson, and ...
, who prosecuted
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
for the raid on Harpers Ferry.


Early life

Hunter was born in 1804 to Col. David Hunter (1761–1829) and his wife, the former Elizabeth Pendleton (1774–1825) in Martinsburg, then in
Berkeley County, Virginia Berkeley County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Hagerstown- Martinsburg, MD- WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the cou ...
, where his father long served as the county clerk. Although he had three brothers, one the Presbyterian clergyman Rev. Moses Hunter of New York, the family had resources sufficient to pay for his education at Washington Academy, now Washington and Jefferson College, further along the National Road in Washington, Pennsylvania, then at Hampden-Sydney College, from which he graduated ''
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' in 1822. Pulliam 1901, p. 107 He married Elizabeth Ellen Stubblefield (d. 1873) and they had two sons, Henry Clay Hunter (1830-1886)—apparently named for the Kentucky politician
Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...
—and Andrew Hunter Jr., and seven daughters.findagrave no. 18189914


Hunter and slavery

Although he was not a pro-slavery spokesman—that honor belonged to his near-neighbor and author of the new Fugitive Slave Law, Senator
James M. Mason James Murray Mason (November 3, 1798April 28, 1871) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as senator from Virginia, having previously represented Frederick County, Virginia, in the Virginia House of Delegates. A grandson of George M ...
—Hunter, like every Virginia politician, was firmly pro-slavery in any public context. At the time of the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Hunter owned five slaves: a 36 year old black male, black females aged 35 and 40, and a 6 year old mulatto boy. A Northern newspaper described Hunter as a "furious advocate of slavery". He declared that the slave trade was"the source of great benefit, not only to the whites in those States, but particularly to the slaves themselves", and declared himself opposed to "sentimental legislation" that suppressed the foreign slave trade. Nevertheless, another newspaper described him as "a warm friend of bolitionist
Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
, strange as that may seem."


Career


Attorney, frequently for railroads

Hunter was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1828, and practiced law in what became the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in his lifetime. His elder brother became a prominent lawyer in Martinsburg, the Berkeley County seat, and Hunter began his practice in Harpers Ferry, then settled in Charles Town (Jefferson County's seat). Beginning in 1840, Andrew Hunter became one of the local attorneys for the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
(B&O), and for many years assisted it, first in acquiring the right of way to lay tracks in the county for the connection at Harper's Ferry, although beginning in 1844 Hunter was also a director of the Winchester & Potomac Railroad Company and represented them in their attempts to be taken over by the B&O as it tried to lay track to Wheeling (then in western Virginia). Hunter was a presidential elector for the Whig party in 1840, but declined nomination for Congress.


Virginia politician

Jefferson County voters elected Hunter as one of their (part-time) representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1846, and he also worked for the B&O while in Richmond, but neither he nor his colleague
William B. Thompson William B. Thompson (1797 – after 1870) was a Virginia farmer and politician who served a term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Jefferson County, Virginia. Jefferson County voters elected him as one of their (part-time) represe ...
won re-election. Swem 1918, p. 390 In 1850, Jefferson County voters and those from neighboring Berkeley and Clarke Counties elected Hunter to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, along with
Charles J. Faulkner Charles James Faulkner (July 6, 1806 – November 1, 1884) was a politician, planter, and lawyer from Berkeley County, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia) who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and as a U.S. Congressman. ...
(another local B&O attorney), William Lucas, and Dennis Murphy. Hunter and Lucas were "states' rights" men, although in the South Carolina nullification crisis of 1833, Hunter and Thompson had spoken strongly condemning South Carolina's course. Hunter was Virginia governor
Henry A. Wise Henry Alexander Wise (December 3, 1806 – September 12, 1876) was an American attorney, diplomat, politician and slave owner from Virginia. As the 33rd Governor of Virginia, Wise served as a significant figure on the path to the American Civil W ...
's personal attorney. It has been said that it was the
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
affair that made Hunter a national figure, but even before John Brown's raid, he was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate:


The John Brown trial

Charles Town, where Hunter lived, was only from Harpers Ferry, where John Brown's 1859 raid produced a huge uproar, drawing national attention. By decision of Virginia Governor
Henry A. Wise Henry Alexander Wise (December 3, 1806 – September 12, 1876) was an American attorney, diplomat, politician and slave owner from Virginia. As the 33rd Governor of Virginia, Wise served as a significant figure on the path to the American Civil W ...
, whose personal attorney Hunter was, Hunter was given the politically explosive task of prosecuting abolitionist
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
and the others of his party who were captured; the county prosecutor, Charles B. Harding, by general agreement was not capable of handling such a high-profile case, and he was happy to be "assisted". Thus, Hunter, who signed himself "Assistant Prosecuting Attorney", quickly drafted the indictment and prosecuted John Brown and his associates for murder, inciting a negro insurrection, and treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. "Mr. Hunter had against him some of the finest legal talent of the North. He conducted the trial with great ability and made a national reputation as a lawyer." The defendants were convicted of all charges, except that since according to the Dred Scott decision Blacks were not citizens, the two Black defendants,
Shields Green Shields Green (1836? – December 16, 1859), who also referred to himself as "'Emperor"', was, according to Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave from Charleston, South Carolina, and a leader in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, in October 1859. ...
and John Anthony Copeland, could not commit treason, so that charge was dropped for those two defendants. All were sentenced to death and all were executed by hanging. The circuit judge and the out-of-town attorneys having left, it was Hunter who was in charge of everything local relating to Brown during his final month. He was "the first man in Charlestown". Only he could have written the "Proclamation" of November 28, announcing the arrest of those in Jefferson County who could not explain their business there. It was Hunter who opened and read every letter addressed to Brown, retaining 70 to 80 that "he could not get, never would get, as I thought they were improper"; they were shipped to Richmond along with the other documents. Hunter told the jailor Captain Avis to treat Brown well. Hunter was already "the recognized leader of the bar of this effersoncounty". The John Brown trials gave him a national reputation. He was at that time "one of the leading attorneys of the United States". In 1881 Hunter went to Storer College to hear Frederick Douglass talk on Brown, and congratulated him when he was done. A visitor in 1883 wrote that "it seems to renew the youth of this venerable octogenarian to talk of John Brown". According to Hunter, Brown "was the bravest man I ever saw." Also available a
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Confederate politician

Hunter was, during the war, "the trusted friend and advisor of General
Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...
". After Virginia voted for secession and the American Civil War began, Hunter and fellow lawyer
Thomas C. Green Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
(Charles Town's mayor, a Confederate tax assessor and later a justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court) represented Jefferson County under the Confederate regime in the Virginia House of Delegates during the sessions of 1861/62 and 1862/63, but neither won re-election in 1863. Another local B&O attorney, Thomas Jefferson McKaig (the railroad's counsel in Cumberland, Maryland, for nearly four decades and who served in both houses of the Maryland legislature), would also side with the Confederacy. After the resignation of banker and Confederate officer
Edwin L. Moore Edwin L. Moore (May 26, 1916 – July 10, 2009) was a researcher for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). With Louis G. MacDowell and C. D. Atkins in the 1940s, he helped develop a new process for making frozen concentrated orang ...
(of the
2nd Virginia Infantry The 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in today's western Virginia and what became West Virginia during the American Civil War for service in the Confederate States Army. It would combine with the 4th, 5th, 27th, an ...
, in which his lawyer son Henry Clay Hunter fought as a private before receiving a lieutenant's commission in July 1861), Hunter then became State Senator for his district, by then occupied by Federal troops (and the U.S. Congress having recognized West Virginia as the 35th State). His youngest brother, Rev. Moses Hoge Hunter (1814-1899), served as chaplain of the 3rd Pennsylvania cavalry during that war, and would later edit the memoirs of their cousin, Union General David Hunter (particularly despised by Confederate sympathizers in western Virginia because of his raids, including that which destroyed the pro-Confederate Virginia Military Institute). General Hunter in July 1864 ordered subordinates to burn Andrew Hunter's home, and Hunter was then imprisoned for a month without explanation nor charges.


Law practice

After the war, Hunter resumed his legal practice. As the county's leading attorney, he again often opposed
Charles J. Faulkner Charles James Faulkner (July 6, 1806 – November 1, 1884) was a politician, planter, and lawyer from Berkeley County, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia) who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and as a U.S. Congressman. ...
in court. Beginning in 1865, when West Virginia legislators moved the Jefferson County seat from Charles Town to Shepherdstown. Hunter fought to move the county seat back, and successfully defended a later law moving the county seat back to Charles Town (from Shepherdstown); Faulkner represented the losing Shepherdstown side. Hunter was later one of the losing attorneys representing Virginia in
Virginia v. West Virginia ''Virginia v. West Virginia'', 78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 39 (1871), is a 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that if a governor has discretion in the conduct of the election, the legislature is bound by his action and cannot un ...
, Virginia's suit to take back the counties of
Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...
and
Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...
, which the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1871 (Faulkner was on the winning side).


Death

Andrew Hunter died at his home in Charles Town, Jefferson County, West Virginia, on November 21, 1888. He was in good health until shortly before his death (attributed in an obituary to "old age"). He is buried with other family members in the cemetery of Zion Episcopal Church in Charles Town. He was survived by two daughters, Mary E. Kent and Florence Hunter. His son Robert Harper, Jr., died "in Confederate service"; his other son, Henry Clay Hunter, an attorney, died a year before his father. His nephew Robert W. Hunter, also a Confederate officer and delegate, would survive the war and become the Secretary of Virginia Military Records.


Writing

* Earlier newspaper versions of these recollections: 1887, more legible reprint of same story, 1888.


References


Bibliography

* * *


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Andrew County and city Commonwealth's Attorneys in Virginia John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry 1804 births Politicians from Martinsburg, West Virginia 1888 deaths People from Charles Town, West Virginia Virginia lawyers People from Jefferson County, West Virginia 19th-century American politicians People of Virginia in the American Civil War Pendleton family American slave owners Hunter family of Virginia Burials at Zion Episcopal Churchyard (Charles Town, West Virginia) Lawyers from Martinsburg, West Virginia Witnesses to John Brown's execution